


Your Friends, My Friends... Our Friends?

by Subtlety Lost (fishstic)



Series: Spymaster's Daughter: Prendre son courage à deux mains [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/F, How Sera and Gabrielle Actually Met, or Gabrielle is accidentally gay with Sera and doesn't even realize it until like 5 years later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-25 13:59:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7535536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishstic/pseuds/Subtlety%20Lost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you want to get back at a noble, you ask the Friends of Red Jenny for help, even if you don't believe Red Jenny is real. So what do you do when Red Jenny <em>actually</em> shows up?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Friends, My Friends... Our Friends?

Gabrielle walked into her bardmaster’s house a few days after being kicked out of the party, expecting to just be reprimanded for not being careful enough. What actually happened shocked her. Her bardmaster grabbed her up by the collar of her shirt as she was walking to her room.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he demanded.

Gabrielle squeaked slightly then coughed and said, “My room?”

“Oh no, you’re not,” he replied. “You are no longer welcome in my home.” As he was talking he dragged her back to the front door.  “I have no room in my house for failures. You are leaving.”

“But I… Can’t I…” Gabrielle choked out as he opened the door and tossed her out into the rain.

“No buts. Leave before I call the guards,” he said as he slammed the door behind her.

Lightning flashed across the sky as Gabrielle picked herself up off the ground and turned back toward the door. “Couldn’t this have waited until the storm was over?” she called out. “This isn’t fair! Give me another chance! It was only one failure! You’ve _seen_ what I’m capable of!” Her pleas were greeted by silence from inside the house and thunder from the sky. She sighed and kicked a rock as she turned around, not noticing the two servants talking by one of the windows.

She continued to kick the rock up the walkway as she headed away from the estate. There was no way she could explain this to anyone, not that anyone would really care. Kicked out of another bardmaster’s house and this time _not_ because they couldn’t afford feeding both her and their older more useful and experienced students. She failed. The grand duke was still alive.

At the gate she stopped. “Shit! He has my mother’s daggers!” There was no way she could go back for them now; he was serious about calling the guards if she didn’t leave. He had never really liked her in the first place.

“I have to get those daggers back somehow,” she grumbled to herself as she continued past the gate and started heading down the street to who knows where. “But how?”

She shivered slightly as rain dripped off her ponytail and slid down her back and arms. For a moment, all she could hear was the pitter-patter of rain and the crash of thunder. Lightning lit up the sky and made it almost seem like it wasn’t in fact night at all. She turned quickly at the sound of footsteps splashing through puddles behind her, slipping and falling rather hard on her butt as she did so. “Ow.”

 _Who? Why?_ When lightning next flashed across the sky, her worry was replaced by concern when she saw her little elven friend Hale, son of one of the servants that worked for her bard—former barmaster. “Hale? What are you doing? You should be asleep, it’s way past your bedtime.”

“I can’t sleep in thunderstorm,” Hale said. “Mamae said it was okay for me to come find you.” He held out a small bundle wrapped in oilcloth. “She gave me this for you.”

“What... what is it?” she asked him as she took it.

“It’s bread and cheese,” he replied. “Mamae doesn’t want you hungry.”

Gabrielle smiled slightly. “Tell her I said thank you.”

Hale nodded cheerfully then looked down for a moment. “I heard you... Lord Hammel has your mom’s daggers. I know they mean a lot to you. I wish I could bring them to you. I’d get in trouble though.”

“Don’t get in trouble for me,” Gabrielle said. “I’m not worth it.”

Hale shook his head fiercely. “You _are_ worth it Gabrielle. I won’t though. Mamae would get in trouble too. I... heard one of the other servants talking. Have you heard of The Friends of Red Jenny?”

Gabrielle nodded. “I have, they talk about her at court sometimes, in the parties and such. Say she causes trouble. Some people say she’s not real.”

“Red Jenny can help you,” Hale said his voice rang with a confidence that only a little kid could have.

“You really think she’d help me?” Gabrielle asked quietly. “But I’m no one.”

Hale shook his head. “Helping no ones is her specialty. I don’t know how to talk to her... but the other, older, servants do. I’m sure of it.”

“That doesn’t tell me if you really think she’d help me,” Gabrielle said.

Hale bit his lip and tilted his head for a moment. “You... actually care what I think? But I’m just a little kid. I don’t even get paid.”

Gabrielle took his hand gently. “Hale, you’re my best friend. Of course I care. You’re important to me.”

Hale smiled slightly and nodded. “I... I think she’d help. She doesn’t like nobles, and you’re not a noble, you’re... you’re one of us.” He looked down for a moment. “She needs payment... One of the older servants might have an idea, but you... try offering to help her. See... if she’ll let you work for her. Mamae says the Friends of Red Jenny need all the help they can get.”

Gabrielle smiled and nodded. “Where should I meet her?”

Hale bit his lip and shrugged then made a vague hand wavy gesture with his right hand down the street. “I... Mamae knows the city more than me. She doesn’t take me out with her much. Wait by... Pierre? In the market, I’m sure you know the place. One of the older servants will find you there and tell you where to go.”

Gabrielle smiled then hugged Hale gently, ignoring the fact that they were both currently standing soaked to the bone in the middle of a thunderstorm. “Thank you, Hale. You’ll always be my friend.”

Hale blushed slightly and hugged Gabrielle back. “Try to remember me when you’re big again someday.”

Gabrielle smiled and pulled away from the hug. “Always, I never forget my friends.”

Hale nodded. “I have to go back now.”

“Don’t get in trouble,” Gabrielle said seriously.

“I won’t.” Hale smiled, turned and ran back to the estate.

Gabrielle smiled as she watched him until she couldn’t see him anymore, then looked down at the small bundle in her hand. _He doesn’t deserve to grow up a servant._ She sighed and turned around. _To the market then? Maybe there’s somewhere dry there that I could sit or sleep._

* * *

Seeing people sleeping in the market wasn’t exactly normal. Most people avoided the public spectacle of sleeping in the market, preferring to sleep in their beds or nap by the reflecting pool. Gabrielle wasn’t most people, though. Surprisingly, she was being ignored for the most part. The crate she was on top of was full mostly of materials like iron that a craftsman would be coming to collect later in the day. It was situated right beside Pierre-Marie’s shop.

More people paid attention to the elf with the ‘strange’ tattoo that was shopping in the market than the human girl asleep on the crate. Most everyone was certain that the elf was someone’s servant, most of them that roamed the city were, otherwise they were likely thieves. Such as it were, behind masks of silver and gold people watched the elf carefully, wary of her stealing. She did not, however, for she wasn’t a thief. This was Eshne, Hale’s mother, and she was shopping for Lord Hammel. The shopkeepers recognized her, and caused her no trouble.

She ignored the whispers of the unknowing and the ignorant as she approached Gabrielle, who was still sleeping on the crate. She noticed, to her dismay, that Gabrielle’s beautiful mask decorated with blue cloth flowers was ripped. “Oh, you poor child, that must have happened when you were thrown out last night.” She reached out a hand and gently placed it on Gabrielle’s shoulder. “Gabrielle, child, it’s time to wake up.”

Gabrielle rolled over, away from Eshne. “It’s not morning,” she mumbled before rolling a little more and falling off the crate. She tried to push the crate away so she could get up, but it was too heavy and she was stuck. _This is fine._

“It _is_ morning, actually, dalen,” Eshne said looking over the crate to Gabrielle and smiling softly. “Are you alright? Do you need any help, dalen?”

Gabrielle looked up and grinned. “No, I’m fine, Eshne,” she said trying to twist around and wiggle out from behind the crate. That, too, wasn’t working.

“From here it looks like you’re stuck, dalen,” Eshne said holding out her hand.

Gabrielle smiled sheepishly and took her hand, allowing herself to be pulled up onto her feet. “Why are you here, Eshne?”

Eshne smiled and set the basket she was carrying down on the crate. “I’m doing the morning shopping,” she said as she reached into the basket and pulled out two little pouches, one of a red cloth and one of blue. “Give this,” she said as she handed over the red pouch, “to Red Jenny. She will then know that you are one of us. And this blue one--” she handed over the blue pouch next, “--is yours.”

“What’s in it?” Gabrielle asked as she stashed the red pouch in her pocket.

“The contents of the red one are unimportant, they are for Red Jenny. The blue one has some berries and bread and a few coins,” Eshne said. “For you.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Gabrielle said. “I don’t want you or anyone getting in trouble for me.”

Eshne chuckled. “Dalen, no one is going to get in any trouble. It’s my coin I’m giving you, it’s not like I’m stealing it from Lord Hammel.”

Gabrielle shook her head and came out from behind the crate. “I don’t want to take your money, Eshne, you and Hale need it more than I do.”

Eshne shook her head and put her hand on Gabrielle’s shoulder gently. “Hale and I still have a place to live. We will be fine, without those few coppers. You on the other hand, are all alone now. No roof, no food. Hale and I want you to have that, it’s all we can give. If we didn’t live in Lord Hammel’s servant’s quarters, we’d offer to let you live with us.” She pulled Gabrielle into a hug. “Please don’t forget us. If you ever need something and it is in our power to give, just let us know.”

“I would never forget you,” Gabrielle said. “You’re like a mom to me. I... wish I knew what happened to my real mom, but you’re here and that's enough for me.”

Eshne smiled and hugged Gabrielle tight. “I’m also here to tell you where to meet with Red Jenny, or at least where to wait for her.”

* * *

Gabrielle paced slightly around the small alley where she was waiting. It had been three days since she’d left Eshne in the market to wait for the elusive Red Jenny and she was starting to believe that Red Jenny really was a myth.

The alley where she was waiting was narrow, dirty, and smelled like fish despite being halfway across the city from the docks. It seemed like a terrible place to wait for someone. There was really no good that could come of a fifteen year old girl spending so much time alone in such a disgusting little alley, this was the place however and Eshne wouldn’t lie to her.

She sighed and paced more up and down the alley until it was too dark to keep that up and she was too tired to continue being awake. When that happened she moved behind a stack of boxes at the side of the alley and laid down. Her hand closed around the little blue pouch that Eshne had given her, that she’d tied around her neck with a ribbon she’d found on the ground in the market. “I miss you,” she whispered, unsure who she missed more, Eshne and Hale or Marjolaine and her mother. Eshne reminded her so much of her mother, what she remembered of her mother at least.

She fell asleep rather quickly, and woke up after only a couple of hours. _Not fair. Just want sleep._ She rolled over and tried to fall back asleep. After about ten minutes of rolling around, she realized sleeping wasn’t going to happen and sighed. She laid on her back for another five minutes then decided to get up and pace around again.

Back and forth she paced for a little while until she heard a low chuckle at one end of the alley. _Shit! Not good!_ She turned toward the other end of the alley and started running. She didn’t know, or want to find out. What whoever it was wanted from her, she knew it wasn’t good and that was all that mattered. She’d honestly hoped that they would leave her alone once she started running but the chuckle and heavy footsteps told her that she was wrong.

Hoping to give herself some confidence she smirked slightly. _I know these alleys, hopefully better than they do. Let them chase me, I’m sure I can lose them._ The alleys twisted and turned as she ran through them, at some point she became aware of a second set of footsteps joining the first. _Shit! They have friends. Shit._ She followed the twisting alleys to where they opened up onto the docks. _Double shit._ The moon was full that night and the docks were nearly as bright, with the moon reflecting off the water, as they were during the day. No matter where she tried to run from there, they would see her. She was certain of that, and it terrified her.

Without thinking she tried to run straight across the docks. Halfway across though, her foot caught on a net that someone had left lying out and she fell flat on her face, smashing her nose rather hard against the ground and causing her entire face to feel like it was on fire. She tried to stand up but couldn’t. Someone was standing over her. _Triple shit._

“Alright. I was expecting to kick some noble’s arse. Two grown ass men that think chasing little street orphans is fun works for me though.”

Gabrielle tried to turn her head enough to see who was talking. She didn’t recognize the voice, but at least they seemed to be on her side, whoever it was.

There was laughter from one of the men and a taunt from the other, “What, you think you can take us, you puny little knife-ear bi--”

“Eat it!”

There was a loud yelp from one of them followed by, “Fucking shit she can actually _use_ that bow,” and the sound of the men running away.

“Arsebiscuits.” The person moved away allowing Gabrielle a chance to stand up. Which she took, though just standing up made her quite dizzy. “I was expecting some noble whose arse I’d get to kick, not some orphan. Here.” The person, an elf as it turned out when Gabrielle actually looked at her, held out a red handkerchief.

Gabrielle took the handkerchief and pressed it against her nose to try and stop the bleeding. “Does that mean you’re her? You’re Red Jenny? I was starting to think you were a myth.”

“I am her. Who does that make you?” the elf replied.

“Gabrielle. Should I call you Red Jenny forever or is there another name? Who is Red Jenny really?” Gabrielle asked trying to smile, hoping to show that she was happy to meet her.

“You can call me Sera,” the elf said. “My friends told me to find you. In that alley back there, yeah? But I get there, right, and see you running from _them_. That’s trouble, yeah? So I followed. You’re lucky I’m fast, yeah.”

Gabrielle nodded slightly. “Trouble is practically my surname. _My_ friends gave me this,” she said as she reached in her pocket with her free hand and pulled the little red pouch out, “to give to you. I don’t know what’s in it, but they said it’s for you.”

Sera nodded and took the pouch from her. She opened it up and looked at what was inside of it. The only thing she pulled out of it, though not the only thing in it, was a folded up note. Gabrielle watched as Sera unfolded the note and read it then smiled and put it back.

“Alright,” Sera said. “You need my help, yeah?”

“Yeah. Until three days ago I was living with Lord Hammel, but he kicked me out and wouldn’t let me take my mom’s daggers before doing so. He still has them because I won’t risk getting my friends into trouble by asking them to get them back for me. I want your help getting them back,” Gabrielle said.

“Why don’t you just sneak in yourself?” Sera suggested.

“He’s too important,” Gabrielle said. “He said he’d call the guards if I didn’t leave, the guards would listen to him even if he lied to them.”

Sera scowled and nodded. “Right, what can you give me in return?”

“Myself,” Gabrielle said without thinking.

“I’m not sure you’re my type,” Sera replied.

Gabrielle started to reply, then stopped and reconsidered what she’d just said. _OH._ “I mean, I can help you. I’ll do anything, help in whatever way possible. I was trained as a bard and as long as that jerk who threw me out for making one mistake hasn’t already ruined my reputation as a bard, I can still use that to get into parties and no one questions it.”

Sera nodded with a slight smirk on her face. “That means you know how to fight, yeah? You might just be my type after all.”

“I can use daggers, and I’m... okay with a bow. I haven’t used one since I was eight years old... that was seven years ago... more or less,” Gabrielle said. “Also I can sing... if that’s useful.”

“It might be, yeah.” Sera grinned. “Idea, yeah. Wait for me by the fish fountain near the market.”

“Messer Glubs’ Summer Home? That’s what the plaque says, I think, if we’re thinking of the same one,” Gabrielle said.

“There, yeah,” Sera said. “I can’t wait to meet this noble arse. Don’t worry, I’ll avoid causing trouble for the little people, your friends and mine. These things I’m going for... your mom’s daggers, right? Tell me about them.”

Gabrielle nodded. “They’re about this,” she held her hands about 30 centimeters apart, “long from tip to pommel, and the hilt is wrapped in blue leather. If you find Eshne, she’s an elven servant with a green tattoo on her forehead, she can tell you where to find them or her son Hale can.”

Sera smiled. “They mean a lot to you, yeah? I’ll get them. Wait for me. Won’t take long.”

* * *

The ground beside the fish fountain, as Sera had called it, was a relatively nice place to sleep as it turned out. Though being that near to the water made it rather chilly, it didn’t seem to bother Gabrielle much, once she’d stolen a blanket from a crate near one of the merchants’ shops. No one bothered her, even well after sunrise. Mostly because no one actually seemed to notice her.

Sera smiled as she walked up to the fountain and noticed Gabrielle asleep beside it. “Cute,” she whispered. She walked around the fountain and sat down in front of Gabrielle. After a few minutes she grew bored of waiting for Gabrielle to wake up on her own and dropped the sheathed daggers, on her stomach.

Gabrielle shot up quickly surprised by the sudden weight on her. “I’m awake!”

“Of course, yeah? These are them, right? Your mother’s daggers?” Sera smiled. “You know, that arsebiscuit is really _really_ pissed at you. But I taught him a lesson about treating the little people better.” She grinned. “Spiders. Lots of them, in his clothes.”

Gabrielle inspected the daggers carefully not quite awake yet. “These are them! Were they hard to find?” It took a while for the second part of what Sera had said to sink in, but when it did she started laughing. “Oh Maker, he _hates_ spiders.”

“That’ll really teach him, yeah?” Sera said.

Gabrielle nodded, still laughing. “Sera, if it’s okay,” she said when she was able to make herself stop laughing for a moment, “can we be friends?”

“I think so, right? It’s a good idea, that,” Sera said. “You’re going to help me, might as well be as my friend. Who knows, someday it might be as more, yeah?”

Gabrielle nodded without thinking. “Yeah.”


End file.
